OpenID got a massive vote of support on Thursday when Yahoo! promised to support the online identity framework starting January 30.

The technology, which allows users to sign in to a single OpenID provider and then use a specific digital identity at supporting sites, allows people to better control their identity information while online. While America Online, Microsoft, Sun and Novell have begin to implement support for the technology, Yahoo!'s 248 million users could potentially triple the total number of Internet identities that use the distributed system, the company said in a statement.

"Supporting OpenID gives our users the freedom to leverage their Yahoo! ID both on and off the Yahoo! network, reducing the number of usernames and passwords they need to remember and offering a single, trusted partner for managing their online identity," Ash Patel, executive vice president of platforms and infrastructure at Yahoo!, said in the statement.

The adoption of a distributed system of trust that allows a consumer to sign into an identity provider and use the credentials on other Web sites has long been a goal of both privacy and security experts. By reducing the number of passwords a user has to memorize, the technology allows users to focus on creating better security for a single account and have more control over who has their information.

Yahoo! will support OpenID 2.0, the latest version of the technology finalized in December, and continue to work on promoting the service to its users. About 9,000 Web sites currently support the technology, according to Yahoo!'s press release.